Police fire tear gas at protest over deadly canopy collapse in Serbia

Описание: (6 Nov 2024)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4531232

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Novi Sad, Serbia - 5 November 2024
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Various of protesters outside city hall, smashing windows, lighting flares, waving Serbian flag
2. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Ljiljana Vasic, protester: ++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT AND PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 3++
"Minister of construction Goran Vesic resigned but also the mayor should resign and everyone in power, not only Vesic. Many of them should be punished.”
3. Various of protesters outside city hall, smashing windows
4. Smoking flare on ground
5. Protesters breaking wooden sticks
6. Various of protesters
STORYLINE:
Protesters on Tuesday threw flares and red paint on the City Hall building in the Serbian city of Novi Sad in rage over last week's collapse of a concrete canopy at the railway station that killed 14 people.

Police responded by firing tear gas canisters.

The protesters surrounded the building in the city center, broke windows and threw stones and other objects despite calls by organizers to remain calm. Special police troops were deployed inside the building.

Serbia’s autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic said police were “showing restraint,” while warning that “horrific, violent protests are underway.”

Protest organizers said they wanted to enter the City Hall building and submit their demands, including that those responsible for the canopy collapse face justice.

Some of the protesters trying to get inside the building wore masks and were believed to be soccer hooligans who are close to the populist government.

Bojan Pajtic, an opposition politician, said he believed violence was being stoked by provocateurs, a tactic used before in Serbia to derail peaceful anti-government protests and paint the opposition protesters as enemies of the nation.

Earlier, thousands of demonstrators had marched through the city streets demanding that top officials step down because of the fatal outer roof collapse last Friday, including President Vucic and Prime Minister Milos Vucevic.

The protesters first gathered outside the railway station where they held a moment of silence for the victims as organizers read their names. The crowd responded by chanting: “arrest the gang” and “thieves.”

Critics of Serbia’s populist government have attributed the disaster to rampant corruption in the Balkan country, a lack of transparency and sloppy work during renovation work on the station building which was part of a wider railway deal with Chinese state companies.

The accident happened without warning.

Surveillance camera footage showed the massive canopy on the outer wall of the station building crashing down on the people sitting below on benches or going in and out.

Officials have promised full accountability and, faced with pressure, Serbia’s construction minister submitted his resignation on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have said that more than 40 people already have been questioned as part of a probe into what happened.

Many in Serbia, however, doubt that justice will be served with the populists in firm control of the judicial system and the police.

The train station has been renovated twice in recent years.

Officials have insisted that the canopy had not been part of the renovation work, suggesting this was the reason why it collapsed but giving no explanation for why it was not included.


AP video shot by Ivana Bzganovic

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